OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2723, 18 March 1916, Page 6

OBITUARY

MR, THOMAS KING, F.R.A.S.

The death is recorded of Mr. Thomas King, for many years secretary of Messrs. Levin and Co., Ltd., who died in > the Bowen Street Hospital on Thursday. , The late.Mr. King was bom in Glasgow in 1858, and at tho age of two years camo out to Auckland with his parents (both since dead) in the ship Whirlwind. He was educated 'at the Auckland College and Grammar School. Removing to Wellington, he joined the staff of Messrs. W. and G. Turnbull and Co., and afterwards entered the service of Messrs. Levin and Co. He was private secretary to Mr. W. H. 'Levin until the latter's death, and when tho business was formed into a company he was appointed secretary—a position lie retained until ill-health compelled bis retirement. Early in the present month ho underwent an operation for some internal trouble.

Mr. King was unmarried. Mr. J. M. King, of Auckland, is his only bro'thor and he has left a sister (Miss King) in-Wellington.

Tho late Mr. Thomas King was on the 'stafE of the. Observatory, as transit observer, under the directorship-of the lato Sir James Hector, and from 1887 to 1911 he was responsible {or the time service. He resigned from the Observatory in 191 L In 1903 lie observed at Wellington, in conjunction with Dr. Otto Klotz, at Doubtless Bay, to determine the -difference of longitude between these two places, This was part of the programme to determine Transpacific longitudes, by tho Pacific Cable, when the longitudes of Vancouver, Fanning Island, Norfolk Islnnd, Australia, and New Zealand wore determined with great accuracy. Mr. King possessed a fine equatorial telescope, which lio made considerable uso of some years ago, hut of late lie had not been carrying on any observations. A few years ago lie visited many of the,leading European observatories, and he brought back witli him many interesting experiences. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society on June 10, 1910. Mr. King was the author of a valuable paper, "On New Zealand Mean Time, and on the Longitude of the* Colonial Observatory, Wellington, with a Note on the Universal Timo Question," read before tho Wellington Philosophical Society, March 18, 1903. and published in the "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," 1902, vol. 35, p. 428.